The estate of Castello del Terriccio is an extensive, 4,200-acre property located in the Tuscan coastal maremma at Castellina Marittima in the province of Livorno, a few miles south of the charming summer resort village of Cecina. The original estate of Terriccio dates from at least the mid-1800s, and was originally the property of the Gaetani family of Pisa. From that time until the recent past, this virtually self-sufficient property supported approximately sixty sharecropping families, a population of nearly 600 people, who worked the land and lived from its yield. Only since the early 1990s have the last of these families left the estate, some compensated with parcels of land on which they continue to live.

In 1921 Terriccio was acquired by the family of the father of the present owner, Dr. Gian Annibale Rossi di Medelana Serafini Ferri. Dr. Rossi's father's family, the Rossi di Medelana, were aristocrats from Bologna; his mother's family, the counts Serafini-Ferri from Rome. Control remained in Rossi di Medelana hands until 1974, at which point an uncle of Dr. Rossi assumed management of the estate. Dr. Rossi took over Terriccio in 1994 as sole inheritor and director.

Until 1995, the Castello del Terriccio's principal production was in various cereals including wheat, maize, barley, faro, and kamut, an Egyptian grain discovered in excavated tombs which was able to be germinated and restored to specialized cultivation. Production of oil from 12,000 olive trees yields approximately 20,000 liters of extra virgin olive oil annually. The estate is geologically divided into two distinct areas: a northern half typified by white clay soils supporting cereals crops and a southern half lying on clay and rock appropriate to vineyards, olive trees and fruit trees.

During the early 1990s, dominance of cereals began to give way to viticulture. The first vines were planted in 1989, and as of 2000 cover slightly over fifty acres. Red vines constitute the majority of plantings, with small plantings of white vines making up the balance. Cabernet Sauvignon represents 28.2 acres, slightly over half the vineyard area, followed by 16.9 acres in Sangiovese vines; the remaining five acres are planted to Merlot. Nearly all the white acreage is in Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc vines, with very minor plantings in various other varieties. All grapes are hand harvested, with pickers making two consecutive passes through the vineyards to ensure a harvest of the most perfectly ripened clusters.

The vinification cellar currently in use was built in 1894 and was originally used as a grain-storage facility, with a roof terrace above the third level used to sun-dry grains. This remarkable building is constructed of an exterior stone wall and an interior brick wall separated by a space into which warm air could be circulated in the winter to control the temperature; the same air space kept the interior cool in summer. The facility has been upgraded with the installation of the most technically advanced temperature-controlled conical stainless steel fermenters, and a new underground cellar excavated from a sharply inclined hillside nearby is slated for completion in time to receive the 2001 vintage.

Under the technical direction of consulting oenologist Carlo Ferrini, Dr. Rossi has created a small portfolio of limited-production super Tuscan wines from the estate's vines. Terriccio's two distinctive red wines originate from vineyard sites after which they are named: Lupicaia, meaning "the place of wolf hunts," and Tassinaia, meaning "the place of stones."

Lupicaia, a blend of 90 percent Cabernet Sauvignon and ten percent Merlot, is vinified from hand-selected grapes from the estate's best plantings. Tassinaia, originally composed primarily of Cabernet Sauvignon and Sangiovese with a small proportion of Merlot, has as of the 1998 vintage been blended from equal proportion of these three varieties.

Grapes for the red wines are fully destemmed and undergo an extended maceration with the skins during and after fermentation. Following malolactic fermentation, they are transferred to Allier oak barriques during which period they are racked into stainless steel tanks for analysis before being returned to cleaned barrels. This takes place every four to five months, and the lots and clones remain separate until final blending in September. Barriques are used for three vintages. The first passage is for Lupicaia, which remains in oak for eighteen to twenty months. The interior of the barrels are then resurfaced and used for Tassinaia in the second and third years, customarily in the proportion of 80 percent second pass and 20 percent third pass, for a period of twelve to fourteen months. The wines receive only a rough filtration to remove gross lees prior to bottling.

More limited in production are the estate's three white wines, Rondinaia, Saluccio and Con Vento, which beginning with the 2000 vintage are being produced under the consultation of oenologist Hans Terzer. Terzer's credentials were firmly established through his affiliation with the San Michele Appiano winery in the Alto Adige. His skill with white varietals brought San Michele Appiano Gambero Rosso's winery of the year award in 1999; its prestige label, St. Valentin, has won several tre biccheri awards.

White wine production is initiated with a cold maceration on the skins followed either by stainless steel or French barrique fermentation. Saluccio, a pure varietal Chardonnay, is barrel-fermented in all new French oak barriques followed by complete malolactic fermentation, and then spends six months in barrique prior to release. Rondinaia, a blend predominated by Chardonnay, and Con Vento, a pure Sauvignon Blanc, are cold-fermented in stainless steel tanks followed by partial malolatic fermentation, and are bottled in March without oak contact.

Total estate production as of the 1998 vintage red wines stood at 90,000 bottles, increasing with maturation of new vineyard plantings to 120,000 bottles with the release of the 1999 vintage red wines and 2000 vintage white wines. If Castello del Terriccio's brief past is an indicator, the estate's future should be bright. Lupicaia, unprecedented by any other wine, has achieved four consecutive Gambero Rosso tre bicchiere awards in its first four releases, the 1995 through 1998 vintages.